Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayleen Thomas.
Hi Kayleen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi I’m Kayleen! I am an artist, musician and hairdresser living and creating in Austin. I grew up in a remote town in Southern California and later moved to Texas with my family. Throughout adjusting to a big new city I found art and music to be a great outlet for me. In fact, I believe art and band were the only classes in school that I always had an A in. After briefly attending college here in Austin, I realized my true professional calling was doing hair. I then enrolled in cosmetology school and acquired my license earlier this year. As I’ve been exploring my professional career I’ve continued to paint and hone my style as an artist with the hope that one day I’ll see my work in a gallery.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I would say it has been anything but a smooth road. For much of my life I’ve struggled with PTSD on a daily basis. There’s a lot of old negative beliefs about myself that come creeping in to steal my motivation and it can be extremely frustrating and discouraging. I’ve learned to allow myself some room to feel what I need to heal. As an artist and as someone who works in a creative professional industry, I believe it is imperative to reinforce positive beliefs about yourself. because the reality is, the artist world is very cutthroat and competitive. It is too easy to give in to the doubts and criticism of others. I grew up being told that I’d never make a career out of doing hair or making art. While I still hear it in my head all the time, I continue to give it my all because I know I am good at what I do and most importantly it makes me so happy. It doesn’t matter if everyone else likes my art, it matters that I love it and can look at it and feel accomplished.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I enjoy leaving the emotion out of what I create because it can overcomplicate things for me, I like to paint with a disco song playing in the background, paint flinging everywhere, and with a joyful attitude. After years of painting with home depot interior paint and giant overpriced canvases from michaels I later learned the value in quality supplies and I made the big switch to oil paint. This completely changed the trajectory of my artist journey. The way the colors blended together and layered on top of one another made my mind light up with ideas. Throughout years of brainstorming what my “thing” would be, the wiggly guy was finally born. The wiggly guy is an original creation made for the sole purpose of interpretation. You can make what you want of their placement in my work but to me they represent a state of true self. when I am behind a canvas painting what immediately comes to my mind, I truly feel the most like myself. I would define my style as a cross between pop art and surrealism. Some pieces feel like a pattern or design, some pieces feel like a place you’d want to lounge or maybe get down to some disco. What really sets my work apart from others is the fact that the wiggly guy can be whatever you want! whatever you make of it is your own adventure and that’s what I love the most about all of my work. As the wiggly guy gained popularity amongst mutuals I began plastering them all over everything. hats, bags, shirts, jackets, ect. and wearing them out around town. suddenly friends were asking where to get one, I just said “bring me a blank shirt and pick a color”. It became too easy to not put them everywhere! I recently counted how many wiggly guys I could spot throughout my house and it came out to 37 TOTAL!
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something that may be surprising or funny about me is that my favorite pastime is roller skating around my living room. Specifically while listening to disco. It is really the most fun form of exercise that I can do in the comfort of my own home under my own disco ball!
Contact Info:
- Website: groovykayleen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groovykayleen/
Image Credits
Groovy Kayleen
